This week a federal judge ruled that Florida's process for imposing the death penalty is unconstitutional, just days before a commission overseeing capital punishment in the state is scheduled for execution.

The commission — or at least its mission — deserves a reprieve from Gov. Rick Scott. The risk that flaws in the legal system could lead to a mistake in sentencing becomes far more ominous when the death penalty is involved. With lives at stake, along with justice, oversight is critical.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez struck down Florida's practice of allowing a majority of jurors to recommend a death sentence without specifying their reasons. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has asked the judge to reconsider his decision, and has vowed to appeal if he won't. A resolution could be years away.

But the ruling from Martinez, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, highlights just one of several problems with Florida's death-penalty process. Florida is the only state that doesn't require a jury's recommendation for execution to be unanimous. The state's Supreme Court has urged legislators, without success, to change the law to require that all jurors agree.

State lawmakers created the Florida Commission on Capital Cases in 1997 to "review the administration of justice" in death-penalty cases. But late in this year's legislative session, lawmakers passed a bill, with little deliberation, that eliminated the commission to save $400,000 a year. Earlier this month, Scott signed the bill into law.

It's ironic that lawmakers would shut down this judicial panel to save $400,000, when they came close to approving a plan to split the Supreme Court that might have cost at least $17 million.

Some of the commission's administrative functions will be transferred to another state panel, but its primary mission of monitoring capital cases won't. Nor will its specific responsibilities of advising the Legislature, governor and Supreme Court on death-penalty issues, fielding public input and overseeing the work of lawyers representing indigent death-row inmates in appeals.

A 2006 study by the American Bar Association of Florida's death-penalty process found "substantial shortcomings," including confused jurors, disparities in sentencing based on race and geography, and unqualified lawyers representing inmates on death row.

In 2009, the state Supreme Court made changes to instructions for jurors in capital cases to address the confusion detailed in the ABA study. However, other flaws in the death-penalty process persist.

Critics of the Capital Cases Commission might point to such lingering problems as evidence that the panel has been ineffective. That's a better argument for strengthening its mandate, not abandoning it.

While Scott signed the bill that eliminates the commission, he has the power and resources as governor to reconstitute an oversight panel for death-penalty cases with an executive order. He could sharpen its focus by giving it a deadline to deliver a comprehensive evaluation of the death-penalty process.

The governor could not fairly be accused of being soft on crime by preserving state scrutiny of death-penalty cases. In fact, those who favor capital punishment in Florida should be most interested in measures to maintain its integrity. The possibility that it might be wrongly applied will only undermine support for the death penalty.